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Podcast: idioms com TOGETHER

By Ana | Podcast Inglês Online

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Podcast: idioms com TOGETHER

Feb 04

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Hello, everyone.

Hoje eu falo sobre idioms super comuns com a palavra together. Enjoy!

Transcrição

Hello, everyone. You’re listening to the new episode of the Inglês Online podcast, and today I’m going to talk about a few idioms with the word together. They’re very common and you’ll hear them all the time in daily conversation, so listen on.

Here’s one of them: put our heads together, or put their heads together, or your heads. Let’s say you were asked by your boss to find some kind of solution to a problem, and, after thinking about it for a while you realise that Joe, the head of the sales team, has some information that would likely be useful in solving this problem.

So you go ahead and give Joe a ring, and you say “Hi Joe, my boss has asked me to find a solution to problem XYZ. I know you’ve been affected by it as well and you’ve got some experience on the topic, so I thought we’d get to the solution much faster if we put our heads together and try and figure this thing out.”

“Let’s put our heads together” means let’s get together and talk about this thing. Let’s discuss it, let’s hear each other’s ideas and brainstorm together. This way, we will figure things out much faster. You’ll hear this idiom a lot in offices where people are used to getting together and discussing problems, or in companies where teamwork is encouraged. Let’s put our heads together and find a solution to this problem. Or, Karen and Steve weren’t able to find a solution individually, but I’m sure if they put their heads together they’ll get there.

Here’s a related proverb: two heads are better then one. Same idea underlying “let’s put our heads together” – one head may not be able to come up with a plan to fix this issue, but with two heads we’ve got a better chance. Do we have our own idioms to say this kind of thing in Brazil? If you know, please leave a comment – I want to know.

And here’s the other “together” idiom of today: get your act together. If someone at work, for example, tells you to get your act together, they’re, well… saying you should probably change your behaviour a little bit. You should become more organised and generally function a bit better. They probably think that your desk is a bit of a mess, or maybe you’ve been turning in your reports a bit late, or the last couple of times you participated in company meetings you were slightly unprepared and your performance left much to be desired.

So that person – let’s say it’s your boss – tells you “You need to get your act together and start making your desk presentable. I also expect you to turn in your reports on time, and come to meetings better prepared. Get organised and be efficient about your work. Get your act together!”

This idiom can be used in personal situations as well – let’s say Tim’s girlfriend broke up with him six months ago and Tim is still so depressed about it that he hasn’t cleaned his place in months! There’s dust and dirt everywhere and also, a strange smell coming from the kitchen. You are a good friend of Tim’s and therefore it’s your job to finally tell him “Tim, enough is enough, my friend. I know you’re in pain but you have to get on with your life. Look around you! There’s filth everywhere. You have got to get your act together starting now, clean up this mess and move on.”

What are your examples? Let me know in the comments and talk to you next time!

Key idioms

put (people’s) heads together
get (someone’s) act together

Vocabulary

enough is enough = já chega, já deu

filth = sujeira, imundície

Author
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Ana

Ana criou um blog de dicas de inglês em 2006, e depois de muito pesquisar o que faz alguém ganhar fluência numa segunda língua, criou seu primeiro curso de inglês em 2009.